The Wheels on the Bus Don't Go Very Far

While Mike Patton, director of transportation at the Capistrano Unified School District, says students are safer in buses than in cars and that bus transportation is good for the environment, he acknowledges that district dollars don’t stretch far enough to provide enough of it.

“It’s not unreasonable to cut a bus rather than cut a teacher,” said Patton.

Four years ago, 62 bus routes served 11 schools, according to Patton. In order to keep budget cuts out of the classrooms, two-thirds of all regular home-to-school transportation were eliminated, reducing regular bus routes to 18 and cutting 4,500 families from bus service.  

Remaining routes were based on demand and distance.  In assessing the criteria for serving the maximum number of students, “distance trumps demand,” Patton said.

A committee looked at the traffic effects and areas of the highest concentration of low-income students to see if reductions in service could be made there.  But the No Child Left Behind program requires transportation for students in that category. 

Currently, the district is operating 21 bus routes to accommodate as many of the needs and requirements that they can.  They include service to Aliso Niguel High School, Aliso Viejo Middle School, Don Juan Avila Elementary School and Don Juan Avila Middle School.

Facing budget cuts for the upcoming school year, CUSD will be grappling with the issue of inadequate transportation again, Patton added.  If service is added somewhere, it has to be taken away from somewhere else.

“I do not foresee any additional transportation cuts at this time,” Patton said.  “That, of course, may change, but as of now, things appear stable.”

The routes have not changed significantly since they were reconfigured four years ago, according to Patton.

According to Patton the cost of a bus route is $60,000 to $70,000 per year, including an employee, gasoline, maintenance and administration.

“That has to be weighed against the cost of a teacher,” he said.  “When there are limited resources, what is the priority of the district?”

In other parts of the country, states fund transportation, according to Patton.  California stopped doing that a few years after Proposition 13 passed.  The state also froze the funding formula for school districts just as CUSD started growing in the early 1980s, “so that the numbers are more out of whack every year,” he said.

The district charges $480 per year for a bus pass but still absorbs two-thirds of the cost for transportation.

“It’s a juggling act,” Patton said.

At Canyon Vista Elementary, having bus transportation is moot. 

“Most of the families live in the area right around the school, so our children walk,” said Triss Chesney, mother of first-grader Curt Chesney.  “We don’t need a bus, and the parking lot is small.”

According to Ellen Downs, mother of two children at Canyon Vista, the only parents who have a problem with transportation are the ones who selected open enrollment and live outside the area. 

“This was built as a ‘walking school’ for people in the local communities," she said.

Some parents have embraced the lack of transportation.

“We walk a lot,” said Moira Bane, who has two children at Canyon Vista.  “It’s good exercise for all of us.”